Train Wrecks

by Louise Pettus

At the turn of the century there was a 200-ft. long, 40 ft. high trestle over Fishing
Creek in York County. On September 2, 1903, a mail and express train of the Southern
Railway was crossing when suddenly, at the mid-point, the trestle snapped and the
locomotive plunged downward. The cars fell on top of the locomotive. The noise, which
sounded like a strong gust of wind, traveled for miles.

There were a large number of passengers on board, most of them from York,
Chester and Lancaster. Seven were killed, including the engineer and the fireman.

Many were seriously wounded. Dr. T. A. Crawford of Rock Hill, the chief surgeon
of the railroad, sent a special train to bring the wounded to Rock Hill Private
Hospital. Glenn and Allison Livery Stable also sent a "hack" for the wounded.

Another famous wreck occurred on the L and C Railroad between Lancaster and
Chester. Leroy Springs of Lancaster had bought the Lancaster and Chester Railroad,
better know as the L and C, in 1896 for $25,000. Only 29 miles long, the railroad
carried both freight and passengers.

In 1913 the narrow gauge railroad had 3 locomotives, 2 passenger cars, 2 combines,
19 boxcars, 6 flats and 2 coal cars. When there was enough demand for a special,
the L and C would borrow a car or two from another railroad. That summer there was
a big baseball game coming up with a Dillon nine and the railroad ran 3 coaches for
the game -- the largest passenger load in the tiny railroad's history. Elliott White
Springs, writing about it in the Springs Bulletin, once remarked that there were
more passengers that day than normally rode the line in an entire year.

A couple of freight cars were placed in front of the passenger cars and the
entourage headed for Chester. Just as the trains got to Hooper Creek, one of the
freight trains leapt the track and plunged into the creek bottom. The passenger
cars followed and piled one on top of another.

The Hooper Creek accident of the L and C resulted in five deaths and everyone
else either wounded or badly shaken. It took two years to settle all the suits
against Leroy Springs. Springs had to borrow money to keep the L and C in
operation. He never ran another excursion train.

Three years after the Hooper Creek accident, the Catawba River went on a
rampage in the Great Flood of 1916. Every railroad trestle on the Catawba River
was washed out. The three span steel bridge that Leroy Springs had built in
1899 to replace a wooden one was washed away.

After trying a detour over the Southern's line, Springs managed to get a ferry
in operation. The ferry carried on car at a time across the river. There were
some steep hills on the way to Lancaster. The engineer had to split his load, take
half of the cars up at a time. Old-timers remember that the process was so slow
that if one was in the first set of cars to get up the hill then he could hunt
quail or pick blackberries while waiting for the second set to arrive.

Elliott White Springs told about the time (he gave no date) that a tornado
funnel passed directly over the L and C while it was moving. The funnel picked
up the first boxcar behind the locomotive and deposited it on the right-of-way
in an upright position, to the utter astonishment of the engineer. At the same
time, the car behind the one that was removed by the tornado coasted forward
and coupled with the locomotive. The rest of the crew didn't notice the
dramatic even while concentrating on the storm itself. Later, a picture was
taken of the boxcar which was still loaded with bales of cotton. The picture
and story ran in newspapers across the United States.

When World War II was over, Elliott White Springs purchased a number of
U.S. Army diesel locomotives that had seen wartime service in Italy. Springs
boasted that the L and C was the first 100 percent diesel railroad in South
Carolina.

In spite of wrecks, floods and tornados the L and C has survived, been very
profitable, and is still just 29 miles long. Springs used to say that it
might not be the nation's longest line but its tracks were just as wide as
anybody else's.